New Life

I believe that once again I am being sent on and will return to Cameroon again.  Whether for work or leisure, I believe I will return.  I wrote those words in my July 30, 2012 blog post.   For the second time in my life, I've returned to Cameroon much earlier then I expected.  On August 1, 2012 I left Cameroon and moved to Niger to work as a Health and Nutrition Program Manager for an international non-governmental organization.  I was supposed to stay for two years, I left after eight months.  Unexpectedly I returned to Cameroon in December to spend the Christmas holiday with good friends.  On the second to last day I providentially had a conversation with the Director of Health Services for the Cameroon Baptist Convention Health Board (CBCHB).  He explained to me that CBCHB recently was awarded a President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) grant and desperately needed a Nutrition Advisor.  The next day I left  for Niger encouraged by the possibility of returning to Cameroon, a country that I know and love, but realizing the likelihood was small.  But then all of the pieces came together and on March 29th, 2013 I returned to Cameroon once more.  

Sunset over the Niger River

For about a month I knew that I would be leaving Niger on Good Friday and my first full day in my new home would be Easter Sunday.  Every so often I contemplated what it meant spiritually to leave and arrive on those religiously significant holidays.  The day before I left Niger, Maunday Thursday, it occurred to me that I these last 8 months have been like a Lenten journey through the desert.  I searched for peace, joy, life, and contentment like a nomad searches for water, but never really found it.  On Good Friday morning, I boarded a plane and left the desert.  

I arose early on Easter morning in my new Cameroonian home and joined hundreds of others to climb a hill outside of Bamenda and watch the sun rise.  After a few prayers and a short meditation, we descended the hill paraded through the streets of Bamenda singing while dodging taxis and motorcycles.  Later in the day I was challenged to think about where I see new life. Certainly I saw it in the Easter morning message, the lively crowd, the view of the waterfall,  but then I realized I see it most prominently in me.  Its been a long eight months since I've felt this content, peaceful, and whole.  My desert journey is over, my new life in Cameroon has begun.  

The deep calm you experience, the profound inner peace with which you are filled and which you find so sweet, is not an illusion, but a true operation of the Holy Spirit, who speaks to the center of your soul.

Abandonment to Divine Providence